René Magritte

Alexandre Iolas (acquired from the artist in 1949)

Collection Huysman (1968)

Private Collection, Europe

Acquired from the above

Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, Magritte, 1968, no. 151

Art Belge, Brussels, 1968, illustrated in color p. 84

David Sylvester, ed., Sarah Whitfield & Michael Raeburn, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, IV: Gouaches, Temperas, Watercolours and Papier Collés 1918-1967, London, 1994, no. 1290, illustrated p. 119

This work is in very good condition. Executed on Cream wove paper and laid down on card. There are a few minor loses and scuffs to the right edge, not visible when mounted. .
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Executed in 1948, the original impetus for the beguiling imagery of La folle du logis was a series of drawings that Magritte produced in 1946 as illustrations for a collection of Paul Eluard’s poetry. Combining objects both familiar and strange, often in unsettling combinations, these drawings exemplify Magritte’s engagement with the Surrealist transformation of the object. Of all the Surrealists, Magritte was closest to Eluard, exchanging affectionate letters and eventually making him a present of another gouache entitled Exemples (Sylvester 1194).

 

Magritte classified La folle du logis as one of his “objets-gouaches” and as the catalogue raisonné for the artist’s work records: “an ‘objet-gouache’ was presumably intended to be displayed like one of Magritte’s “tableaux-objets”, that is to say stood upright on a flat surface rather than hung on a wall” (D. Sylvester (ed.), op. cit., p. 119). Although it seems likely that the present work was never framed in this way, Magritte’s very precise and illusionistic stye depiction of the nest and candle make it easy to see how effective this would have been. The combination of the dark background and the brilliant white of the candle and egg have a mesmeric quality as Magritte brilliantly juxtaposes the illusionism of his technique with the disconcerting effect caused by his choice of objects.     

 

The artist’s use of gouache facilitated his intricate style of representation but also introduced a brighter tone to his compositions. Siegfried Gohr, discussing the importance of the artist’s gouaches, wrote that “the coloured works on paper reveal the brilliant talent of Magritte the painter. Even though he repeatedly denied his ‘artistry’, belittling the traditional habitus of the virtuoso artist genius and emphasizing instead the artist’s intellectual work, his gouaches in particular reveal how masterfully he was able to apply his extraordinary gift of visualising his pictorial ideas” (S. Gohr, Magritte: Attempting the Impossible, New York, 2009, pp. 77-78).